I've done this through several droughts. Fairy liquid isn't ideal but it is better than no water. Try changing to a green washing up liquid to avoid the problem altogether.

I have done this in the past, I always leave it to stand a few days before using it...

Pour it through some material to filter out all the scraps and residual cooking fats too.

Agree with all the above - strain it and switch to an eco washing up liquid, specially if you're using the water in pots.

Just buy some water butts, fill up from the hosepipe, forget about recycling washing up water, and get the water companies to get their acts together and repair the leaks!!

Not a responsible attitutde, scrumpyg - for a start, I wouldn't want to risk the hefty fine. We are, just this year, 20 percent down on rainfall, as we were the year before, so the groundwater and reservoirs are low. In contrast to Scotland, where they've had 120 percent of their rainfall in a year. In other words, they got our missing 20 percent...

Not responsible, but I think that I may be taking a few more baths (instead of showers) this year............

How is it not responsible? Filling a water butt with 200litres of water means you know exactly how much water your plants are getting, as opposed to sprinkling with a hosepipe.
What is irresponsible about suggesting water companies fix their leaks?
And it is not illegal to fill up a watering butt with water from an outside tap attached to a hosepipe

"A ban on hosepipes means they cannot be used on gardens, plants, cars or boats for "recreational use"; to fill or maintain ponds, pools or fountains; and to clean paths, walls, windows or other artificial outdoor surfaces"

Well, if you feel its morally acceptable, its up to you.

Again, tell me what part of what i have said is unacceptable?
What do you water your garden with and how?
I've said i fill up a water butt. I then use a watering can.
Sounds pretty moral to me.
Unless of course we don't water anything in which case there is no point gardening as nothing will grow, which i guess is the only real answer to save our country from disaster.

You could fill the water butt up from the kitchen and bath waste water.
I'm also wondering about running the drain tap off the butt through a basic charcoal filter system kinda thingy.

You can use bath/kitchen water, buckets are OK to empty the bath (also straight from the tap). I believe Scrumpygrat has the appropriate quote that hosepipes cannot be used on gardens, plants etc. If your waterbutt is for storage of water for use on your garden then you should use a bucket (preferably from your waste water) as using a hose would mean that the hose was used on a garden or plants.
I am a (Young) widower living on my own and am asked for over £10 per week for my water bill. I basically agree with scrumpy`s basic assumption that if you pay for something you should get it. Perhaps hosepipe users should get together and demand what we do and have actually paid for?

Have always used the washing up water to throw onto the garden and nothing has been affected, in fact have been doing this since 76', in that same year I pumped the washing machine water out into the garden too, needs must and this year it looks as if we will have to save as much water as we can.Not sure I agree Scrumpy with filling up a water butt via hosepipe! Dishonest comes to mind. Sorry.

Kere: What you've paid for is clean, treated water to drink and to wash in, and the mains which supply it, and treatment of sewage. And you will continue to use clean, fresh water in that way, since drinking it, cooking with it, boiling it for tea, flushing your toilet with it and washing in it does not require the use of a hosepipe. My own water bills are very high indeed, and I live alone on a pension.
It is not the water companies' fault that we haven't had enough rain; you could argue it's all our faults for causing climate change, and for being so casually wasteful of such an important resource, if you felt so inclined. I wouldn't like to have to drink water from rivers, etc., lord knows what's in it, though I could give you a short list of some nasties in there. And of course, pipes burst and pipes leak and pipes need replacing, so inevitably, some water loss occurs.
Scrumpyg:
If there's a hosepipe ban, I use a watering can. Living up 3 flights of stairs, it's not possible for me to siphon off the bathwater, as I used to, to water my area of the garden downstairs. This might be something you could do to fill your water butt though rather than using fresh tapwater. This year, I shall be putting down 2 inches of thick mulch everywhere possible, and letting nature take care, or not, of the plants. Any new plants will be put in with a short length of pipe aimed at the roots to aid pouring water from a can straight to the roots. What dies will be replaced. When there's a shortage of water for us to drink and feed crops, I'm certainly not using it to water ornamental plants in my garden, nor for pressure washing a patio or washing a car. For my balcony plants, I shall use the run off collected in a bucket before the water gets hot enough to wash in, having a combi boiler, and buckets of 'grey' water from the bath after use, and any other water that might be useable (from hand washing, etc.). I don't consider what I'm saying to be anything other than a sensible approach to a difficult situation, if thought about properly.

Had to go to hospital this morning, and therefore passed the river/canal on the way, on foot. I was astonished to see that the river is now so shallow and low that ducks were standing in it, and it didn't even come up to their feathers. If it keeps up like this, the worst might happen - which is, of course, standpipes in the street and no water out of the taps. Not much fun when you live up 3 flights of stairs.

It is a pretty serious situation isnt it Bam.

Yes it is. I really wish it wasn't though, drives me bonkers when I can't use the sprinkler and you just have to standby as plants shrivel up. Maddening and saddening, but it can't be helped. I've decided to dig up a couple of the more precious ones and pot them up, it'll be easier to keep those watered that way.

Its very serious, I`m thinking of purchasing yet another waterbutt for standing near my house, it will save my poor arms and back if and when it does rain as at the moment I carry it to spare bins near to my greenhouses rather than let the overflow soak away into the ground, I admit not everybody has room for that option. I`ve already asked the family not to throw the rinsing water away and that goes into my old dustbins also stood on our yard, new kind of decoration for that area, lol, not sure yet what I will do about my fishpond as obviously I cannot use dirty water in there and it will need topping up a couple of times through the summer...

That's one thing you'll need to use tapwater for, Lincslass - tell me, if you do use tapwater, do you have to let it stand for an hour to let the chlorine evaporate first when its for fish? Or is it okay to just put it straight in?

You can buy all sorts of special treatments but that is very expensive, if its only for topping up then we trickle it in straight from the tap but if for some reason we were starting from scratch, as in a new pond or complete cleanout then we would leave it standing at least 3/5days before replacing the fish as well as adding de-chlorinating salts and suchlike, most of our fish are over 25yrs old so I guess we have the balance right...

Well, you never know, maybe we'll have intermittent rain this summer and you won't need to top it up at all. But I certainly wouldn't be using 'brown' water to do it with, Lincslass.

Nope I certainly wont be doing that Bamboo..

Lincslass - I've just checked out precisely what 'hosepipe ban' means. One of the things you are still allowed to use a hosepipe off the mains for is topping up ponds which contain fish, so you're breaking no law doing that. That's according to the Hozelock site, so you may want to check with your water company as well to be on the safe side.

I cut out from the paper the drought info. from Thames Water and it has a list of do's and don'ts :
quote: Temporary use ban notice section 76. water industry act. 1991.
TW gives notice to all customers that the water it supplies must NOT be used for :
1. watering the garden with h.pipe
2. cleaning motor vehicle with h.pipe
3. watering plants with h.pipe
4. cleaning a private leisure boat with h.pipe
5. filling a domestic swim.pool or paddling pool
6.drawing water, using a h.pipe for recreational use.
7.FILLING OR MAINTAINING A DOMESTIC POND. USING a H.PIPE!!!

This is from Thames so I suppose other providers may be different. Thought you would like to know. :~(

I tried to check with my water company (veolia central) online - typically, they have no information re the drought and hosepipe ban, it's not even referred to on their site. But the last point in Thames Water's list I'd check on - they haven't mentioned fish at all, so it could be taken that you can't fill a simply ornamental pond, or top it up, with a hosepipe, rather than an actual fishpond.

nothing about filling up a water butt then.........

I've just noticed that list includes 'cleaning a private leisure boat...' gawd, how the other half live, lol

Just noticed your comment Scrumpygra... I think you'll find your water butt filling using a hose is covered under Point 6.

Scrumpy...you can fill your water butt but not with a h.pipe, they are banned.
Bam: it also says no cleaning of windows,paths or patios, so we can just spend the summer sitting, its official.Lol

Bloomin' eck, who cleans their windows with a hosepipe? I certainly don't, its a bucket job. Not that I'll be doing them, sounds like a great excuse, water shortage...

I expect some folk do!! Me I have a window cleaner call every two months, I wonder if they can still work? Actually have just spotted this on this very long drought notice, Quote " Exemptions: 1. using a hosepipe in a garden or for cleaning walls or windows of domestic premises, paths or patios, a private leisure boat or an artificial outdoor surface, where such use is necessary for..........Wait for it.......... HEALTH & SAFETY REASONS!!!!!
How the h*** are they going to monitor that? Its gets sillier each day. Surly a water ban is a water ban!

No, I did know about that health and safety thing. The example used in the stuff I read was, say, a path or a ramp where elderly peple need to use it all the time, and its covered in slime and moss and needs to be washed off. Then you can use a hosepipe. I don't quite see how having dirty windows can be a health and safety risk though... in fact, dirty windows are less of a risk, surely. I notice the birds don't crash into mine when they're not clean. Although I guess a car windscreen needs to be clean, but you can do that with a bucket, so not sure what they mean there.
Thinking about it, the contract window cleaners here use long brushes with hosepipes connected (we're a block of flats) to do the outside, so I'd imagine they won't be able to work.Unless they say its detrimental to our health to have dirty windows!!
One thing I do know, it'll be detrimental to my health to have to carry heavy watering cans about the place, with arthritis - do you think that means I can use a hose, lol?

If you are a blue badge holder Bam. you can. That is on the 'exemption' list, no 2. Of course I agree with the cleaning of ramps for the elderly etc. it's just that some folk don't care and use h.pipes anyway, we must all do our bit, dont you agree.

Hang on, are you saying that if I had a blue badge, I could water my garden with a hosepipe, Grandmage? Not that I have one, but I'm interested anyway.

Thats what the public notice in the paper from Thames water says Bam. Honestly and I quote: Exemptions=
watering a garden attached to a domestic dwelling or watering plants on domestic premises using a h.pipe, by people with severe mobility problems who hold a current BB. as issued by their local authority'

Since announcing the ban was coming into force I`ve noticed how many folk are out cleaning their vehicles with a hosepipe, guess they are all doing them while its still legal, I do know that I`ve got until April 5th to use mine, so I`m definitely making my pond filter cleaning job top of my list for next week, I`ve now got all my butts and spare bins topped up again, its surprising how much water I`ve saved just through washing my hands in the bowl.
Nearly forgot to say, I won`t be using my hosepipe as I usually do for this job, I`ll have to get down and dirty in one of my bins. Oh What Joy That`ll Be!!!!!!!
By the way folks its raining slightly as it was earlier, Stamford Mid Lent Fair starts Monday so anything could happen weatherwise in the next few days...

Thanks Bamboo, I`ll check with Anglian Water...

hi all - thank you for your answer to my question re using washing up water to give my plants a drink. i will let it stand for a few days before using however still thinking of getting a second water butt just for this type of water so that i can alternate between fresh and used.

with the summers we usually get hopefully all this prep will not be necessary and the clouds will do the job although we did hope to use the bbq this year never even switched the gas on last year - o well we do have a very large umbrella we can use if needed.

water companies are not being very helpful at the moment with hose pipe questions - perhaps they will get their act together and all start singing from the same hymnsheet - particularly in the south of england - so that we all know what to expect.
meanwhile will start the raindance

You're right about their not being helpful at the moment - Thames Water seems to be the only one who's sent out information about it so far. I'm still waiting for something from Veolia...

I`ve been on the Anglian website, the way it reads it sounds as though my daughter who has Arthritis and has to live on meds would be legal if she uses the hosepipe for me, fat chance of that happening, lol, no mention of ponds with fish at all, so if the water level got dangerously low I`m expected to let them die, whilst the carwashes are ok to carry on as they are a business, I can understand that actually as we all have to earn a living but crumbs I `ll go mad if I see them watering the local bowling greens and golf courses after April 5th...
We`ve had more rain in the last 10days than we`ve had since xmas so its picked up a bit..
Wish I`d got a wide enough hose to fit onto my bath wastepipe, its a long way up and down the stairs, lol...

You can still top your pond up with a can, Lincslass...

Lincs. according to Thames water if you have a trickle irrigation system with a pressure reducing valve and timer that is acceptable, because it waters drip by drip directly onto the soil and there is no run off or dispersion into the air!! Maybe this is the way to go.

They mean the drip feed type as used in greenhouses though Grandmage, sometimes also used outside, particularly for watering pots, but usually its a capillary drip feed system they mean. Unfortunately - because it doesn't include 'leaky pipe', which is still not allowed to be used.

I know Bam. it is worth a try though!

If you've got leaky pipe buried, no one will know you're using it, it occurs to me...but naughty, naughty if you do, lol!

Bam. they actually say in the TW blurb that if your pipe is beneath the soil it is exempt!!!!

Really! I'd guess its still cheating though - leaky pipe is usually left with a connector sticking out of the soil into which you plug your hosepipe... which isn't, obviously, underground.

I agree, think sneaky is a better word!!